Laundry Day
by kireitenshi00
Summary: It's laundry day in Rose and the Doctor's flat, and there's something amiss with the washing machine... Post Journey's End


Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters in any form as much as I'd love to.

"Ohh…. That was a terrible, absolutely terrible, approach to the Hammerhead."

"Mmm hmm."

"And you should be in fourth through the tires!"

"Mmm hmm."

"And he just kissed his time good-bye with that absolutely pedestrian turn on Gambon."

"Mmm hmm. Pedestrian."

"Rose, did you see that? I mean honestly! Rose… Rose… Rose!"

"What?" Asked a blonde woman with her face utterly absorbed in something on a laptop as she reclined on one end of a large couch.

"I just asked you if you saw that travesty that man calls driving on Top Gear just now. I mean Clarkson should have a field day with him!" responded the overeager and lanky man sitting opposite to her on the sofa. "I would cut that time in half with one hand and bad conditions!" The young woman let out a snort in response.

"Sure, Doctor. Given the fact that it's a manual I'm sure that would work out real well for you."

"Rose! Have a little faith in me!" came the indignant reply.

"Oh I have faith in you all right. Just not your driving skills," Rose dryly stated.

"I'll have you know that my driving skills are impeccable!" argued the Doctor.

"Oh sure, impeccably bad. I saw how you drove a police box through time and space. You really think I can trust you behind the wheel of a car?" pointed out Rose.

"I told you! The TARDIS was designed to have six Time Lords piloting it!" defended the Doctor.

"Mmm hmm… Sure," said Rose, looking over the screen of her laptop.

"Hey! I…" The Doctor trailed off as he returned Rose's stare. The corners of her mouth had twitched upwards in a vain attempt to curb her laughter. Upon meeting the Doctor's gaze, she threw her head back and laughed.

"I'm sorry!" she cried between gasps of air. "I just never expected that you would get so riled up over a television show, let alone Top Gear!"

"I find it intriguing to hear about cars. After all, I seemed to have lost my Lamborghini, and it was such a lovely blue color too!" said the Doctor. At this, Rose seemed to settle down and returned his somewhat downtrodden look with a gentle smile.

"Well, how about this. Give me a little bit of time to finish up these reports, and then we'll see about a driving lesson and getting yourself a license," offered Rose.

"You and those reports! You've been working on them for days. I'm bored," stated the Doctor.

"I've noticed," replied Rose. "But considering I spent the last 6 months shooting myself across the stars with a dimension cannon trying to find you, while letting all my other work lapse into various states of decrepitude, did you really think I wouldn't have any work to make up?"

"Hey! No one asked you to go careening across the universe!" grinned the Doctor. Rose stuck her tongue out at him good-naturedly and returned to typing on her laptop. There were a few minutes of comfortable silence as the Doctor was once again absorbed in the world of fast automobiles in Pete's World, and Rose continued her status reports.

"And a car! Don't forget the car!" replied the Doctor in a sudden outburst.

Rose chuckled, "I guess I'm not surprised. Settling down in just one place, even taking the slow path, isn't easy for you, but then again, it wasn't easy for me either."

"How about a Porsche? Or maybe even a Ferrari! They have those here right?" excitedly asked the Doctor.

"Well yes, they do, but if you're looking for top of the line here, Alfa Romeo actually has the leading sports cars," said Rose.

"… You have got to be kidding me," stated the Doctor bleakly.

"Unfortunately, I'm not. I refused to go along with that insanity and invested in a BMW," said Rose. The Doctor nodded approvingly and the two returned to their companionable silence interrupted by the screech of tires coming from the telly and the gentle sound of computer keys being depressed at a rapid pace. A small sound broke the silence- the strains of a recent pop song interrupted the peaceful interlude, and Rose ceased her typing to reach into the pocket of her hoodie and retrieve a small black cell phone, which was emitting the noise.

"Oh no. Don't tell me they're calling you in to work today! You're supposed to be off this entire week! It's bad enough you're sitting here doing paperwork," said the Doctor.

"Quite your whinging. It's just my alarm. Laundry's done," Rose said, as she set her laptop on the sofa and stood up stretching her arms over her head. "And don't you add any of your little embellishments! The last thing I need is my supervisor reading about is some rant on the lack of efficiency the chip shops seem to have."

"You have to admit that it is a serious problem," stated the Doctor. Rose laughed and walked out of the sitting room to head down the hallway to the laundry room.

It had only been a week since the parting of the ways between her and her original bivascular Doctor at Bad Wolf Bay, but it had seemed much longer. When Rose heard those beautiful TARDIS doors close for the last time and the rotor taking it back across the Rift and into the stars, she thought that was the end. That is, until the grip on her hand tightened a little bit in a comforting grip and she turned to see the face of the man she had loved for so long.

Even though he wasn't the same Doctor (the New New Doctor, as he liked to put it), his presence softened the blow of the other one leaving. Although he only may have one heart, he was willing to entrust that heart to her, and really that was what won her over in the end. He was willing to spend the rest of his human life span with her, a former shopgirl from Powell Estates. Of course, it helped that he had all the memories of the other Doctor. Unlike what the other Doctor had said, this Doctor wasn't nearly as genocidal as Rose was led to believe. The way Rose saw it, he did what he had to do to save the universe. Who was she to judge? After all, wasn't she the one who became the Abomination and destroyed the entire Dalek race in 100,000?

In a weird and (kind of) creepy way, which Rose had to laugh at, it brought them closer together. The two of them made quite the dysfunctional pair as Jackie called them. They had walked to the nearest village from the beach hand in hand and were inseparable ever since. It had only taken a few hours for Pete to send a Torchwood retrieval team via zeppelin to bring them back to London. After all, Rose was one of the best field agents, and frankly he was scared to leave Jackie there for too long in the fears that her irritation would increase tenfold as their wait time in backwater Norway increased. In the three hours it took for Torchwood to arrive, Rose was able to place a few calls and make several arrangements, including some forged paperwork, which was payback from a friend at the office. From what Rose told the Doctor, it apparently had something to do with saving her from a co-worker who got a little incapacitated.

In the end, the Doctor, which Rose still tended to call him, was titled Dr. John Smith. Of course, it wouldn't do to be called the Doctor without actually having a doctorate in something, so they set about to creating some certificates. With three degrees in particle physics, electrical engineering ("Certainly NOT mechanical," said Rose at the time), and computer science, the Doctor was set to start his life anew. Along with a stellar recommendation from Torchwood Director Pete Tyler a few days later and an interesting interview (to say the least) with a few of the higher ups, the Doctor was officially recruited to Torchwood in Pete's World as a member of the research and alien artifact identification department, a job which he said he would cheerfully start once Rose finally cashed in on some of her accumulated vacation time.

Rose's supervisor had been ecstatic upon this suggestion, as apparently Rose tended to overwork herself, so under strict orders not to return to the office for another two weeks, Rose headed for her modest town home with the Doctor in tow. It certainly had been a change for the Doctor, who suddenly found himself residing in a place with floorboards, carpets, doors, windows, furniture, and thankfully, no shutters. The two of them had settled in comfortably given all the circumstances. Sure, the first night sharing one bed was a little awkward, but that quickly went away after a massive snogging and tickling session, which involved a lot of tongue utilization to say the least. After that, the two engaged in a life of domesticity, which both were sure was not going to last for very long. Employment at Torchwood would never allow for a completely domestic life.

'Bloody hell,' thought Rose. 'Seven months ago, I wouldn't even see my flat for more than four hours at a time. I know my office better than this! And now here I am, doing the laundry for the Doctor and me.' With a small smile and a shake of her head, Rose continued on down the hallway and entered the laundry room.

The Doctor had been sitting comfortably and certainly not tampering with Rose's report, at least not too much, when he heard the shriek.

"DOCTOR!"

"Rose! Are you alright?!" yelled the Doctor as he leapt from his seat and sprinted down the hall, his feet in their socks sliding across the floorboards. He continued down the hallway and entered the small laundry room to find Rose standing with both hands on her hips and staring into the washing machine in disbelief.

"What?! What's going on!?" urged the Doctor.

"Mind telling me what the hell is this?" asked Rose softly, her voice going icy as she stared pointedly at the washing machine. The Doctor peered into the washing machine to see what had caused the commotion. Instantly he knew something was wrong. Although the Doctor knew that one was supposed to wash like colors together, he got the feeling that not everything in the washer was originally that particular shade of navy blue…

"Rose… I-" began the Doctor, but Rose cut him off with a sigh as she reached into the washing machine and began to pull out various articles of clothing.

"Ruined… Ruined… Looks like a hippy tripping on acid might have designed it…" commented Rose as she pulled out several t-shirts.

"Hey! That fashion might come back in you know!" the Doctor stated optimistically as he took the latest item to exit the washer's blue-dyed depths. Rose glared at him and went back to retrieving items to throw in a slowly growing pile on the floor behind her. Suddenly she stopped.

"What the hell?" she wondered as she reached deeper into the dryer and pulled out… "A yo-yo?" In her hand was none other than a Duncan Butterfly Yo-Yo in fluorescent green.

"I wondered where that went!" exclaimed the Doctor as he snatched it from Rose's hand.

"Why is there a yo-yo in the washing machine?" inquired Rose.

"It was in my suit jacket pocket most likely," replied the Doctor as he looped the damp string of the toy around is finger and began to play.

"Yes, but why is there a yo-yo in your jacket?" asked Rose impatiently.

"Well you know, I keep everything in my jacket pockets. After all, they're a bit like the TARDIS! Bigger on the inside!" exclaimed the Doctor as he suddenly went a bit paler. "Oh dear…"

"'Oh dear' what?" asked Rose hesitantly. The Doctor ceased his yo-yoing and advanced toward the dryer. Rose watched him remove a towel and then watched his shoulders slump. "Do I even want to know?" she continued.

"Well… Remember how I said the pockets were 'bigger on the inside'?"

"… Bloody hell," replied Rose as she stepped forward next to the Doctor and peered into the washing machine. There amidst all the navy blue dyed clothes lay a variety of objects. Rose had to admit that it looked as if one of the those drawers in the kitchen containing all the odds and ends recovered from various cushions and shelves had been multiplied by five and then dumped into the washing machine. Rose sighed then began to remove all the offending objects from her appliance. As she did so, the Doctor joined in and together they began to create two piles: laundry and the Doctor's locker full of items.

In addition to a the yo-yo, a mini flashlight, several coins of various civilizations (5 Roman, 3 Greek, and 6 Lithuanian), a mini compact disc, a compact mirror, a pair of aviator sunglasses, an opal the size of a quail's egg ("I'll take that," said Rose), a sodden copy of Agatha Christie's _Murder on the Orient Express_, a Faberge egg, a ticket to a concert on some distant planet, and ten keys to various doors, which the Doctor could not recall for the life of him, were recovered from the appliance.

"Well, I think I found the culprit for dying all the laundry," announced Rose as she leaned into the dryer to remove a few small pens, all with the caps missing and ink spilling out.

"Aw," began the Doctor disappointingly as he took them from her hand. "After all the trouble I went through to nick these from the Brig! I loved these!" Rose snorted at that and returned to reaching into the washing machine while the Doctor lamented the loss of his fine ink pens.

"What the hell…" murmured Rose. "Doctor…"

"And of course it's not like I can get another set here! Can I?" wondered the Doctor.

"Doctor!" snapped Rose.

"What?" he answered.

"Mind telling me what the hell that is?" said Rose and pointed into the depths of the washing machine. The pens momentarily forgotten, the Doctor returned back to scanning the interior of the appliance. All the clothes and almost all the Doctor's various trinkets had been removed, but there was something strange about the interior of the formerly steel grey interior. There, creeping along the bottom of the dryer and entwined neatly with the drainage holes along the interior was some sort of green-yellow glowing plant. 'It actually looks more like coral rather than a plant,' thought Rose to herself.

"Well Doctor-," she began but stopped as she glanced at his face. The Doctor was wearing the most unusual expression. His face had gone pale as the snow on Woman Wept and his eyes seemed to hold a strange mixture of fear, joy, and hope all rolled into one. Slowly, he reached a single hand into the washing machine and gently brushed his fingertips across the small branches. To Rose it seemed as if the machine suddenly started humming, but it was a slight humming and nearly unnoticeable.

"Oh Rose…" the Doctor started. "Oh Rose Rose ROSE!" he shouted jubilantly and he turned to her dropping the forgotten empty ink pens on floor. He swept her up in his arms and whirled her around, not even caring that he was tripping on the pile of laundry behind him.

"Doctor, what on earth?" she asked him confused.

"Do you realize what this is?!" he exclaimed. At her silence, he continued, "It's a TARDIS!"

"You're joking!" she replied dubiously.

"No! I'm not! Remember how I told you that TARDISes were grown?" he asked her. She nodded in reply.

"Well this is a baby TARDIS! The Doctor must have slipped a piece of the TARDIS into my pocket when I wasn't looking. The water from the rinse cycle must have activated its growth!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"That's brilliant!" shouted a grinning Rose and immediately embraced the Doctor in another hug. The two laughed and danced around the laundry room. "How long until it's ready for traveling?" Rose inquired.

"Oh I would give it about forty years to be fully mature, but we could probably get back to being the Doctor and his plus one in about ten years," the Doctor replied.

"Ten years," murmured Rose dreamily.

"Ten years and then back to the stars," said the Doctor smiling. "Until then, all we need to do is give her plenty of water."

"And my washing machine?" queried Rose. The Doctor laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah… About that…" he started.

"Oh no… Oh no! I just bought this!" Rose protested.

"But the TARDIS likes the washer!" replied the Doctor.

"And I like my washer!" she said.

"What do you think about me getting a Porsche? Maybe a Benz?" evaded the Doctor.

"You're so not changing the subject," Rose said.

"I think maybe I'll get back to reading that driving instruction material," said the Doctor as he moved toward the hall.

"Doctor!" she protested.

"No time! Have to get my permit in order!" he said.

"Fine then! Don't expect me to drive you to the station to get your license though!" she warned him.

"Yes ma'am," the Doctor replied and continued on his way.

"Oh, and Doctor?" she called to his back.

"Yes, Rose?" he replied as he turned back to face her.

"You owe me a new washing machine," she smiled narrowing her eyes a little. The Doctor winced, and with a resounding slam, the door to the laundry room was closed.

"Well, at least I didn't have any laundry in the dryer," mused the Doctor thoughtfully and turned back into the sitting room_._ "Well what do you know! I do look like a better version of Richard Hammond!" he announced and settled down in front of the television once more.

A/N: Frankly, I have no idea where this came from. I was watching Journey's End, and I just knew that I couldn't have the journey end there. I was watching Doctor Who Confidential, and they mentioned that in the script, the Doctor was actually meant to slip a piece of the TARDIS into the pocket of his metacrisis counterpart in order for him to grow a new TARDIS. After all, the Doctor isn't really the Doctor without his TARDIS. Anyway, this is all I have for now, and it's actually a lot longer than I anticipated. I, of course, thought up this plot bunny while I was doing laundry at 3 AM, but as I was typing it, I began to think of other small "A Day in the Life of…" ideas, and perhaps I'll be putting out a few more stand alones to accompany this one.

Well thanks so much for reading and please feel free to read and review!


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